Free hug man gives free kidney

JACKY GHOSSEIN/SMH

SHARING AND CARING: Sydney's free hugs man Juan Mann is donating a kidney because, he says: 'I have two kidneys. I don't need that second one and someone will be able to get out of hospital.'

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The Sydney man famed for giving free hugs is planning to donate a kidney to a stranger.

The 26-year-old, who goes by the name Juan Mann, plans to undergo surgery early next year.

Mann has been dispensing hugs every Thursday in Sydney's Pitt Street Mall since June 2004. A YouTube video of him was used in a music video clip by Sydney rock band Sick Puppies, leading to 30,000 hits and a 2006 appearance on the Oprah Winfrey's talk show.

"I am young, I am fit, I am healthy, I have two kidneys. I don't really drink. I don't need that second one and someone will be able to get out of hospital," Mann said.

His planned donation will be documented by Unseen TV and posted on the internet. He will undergo psychiatric and physical tests at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital "to make sure I'm not insane, not brainwashed and not doing it for the wrong reasons".

If he passes both tests the surgery will take place early next year, making Mann among the first in NSW to undergo non-directed kidney donation. "It requires a special person to come forward and survive the selection process," Kidney Health Australia medical director Dr Tim Mathew said. "For every 100 people who ring us saying that they want to do it, only four or five are successful."

"I will never meet the [recipient]; I will never know if the transplant is a success or a failure; I will never know if my kidney kills the person," Mann said.

"Apparently once you give your kidney you will never feel whole. [But] I'll get a cool scar and apparently chicks dig scars."

International Free Hugs Day, inspired by Mann, will be held in 90 countries on October 19.

- © Fairfax NZ News